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Oh I forgot to mention the very promising ICF at the NIF.

Large projects like ITER or the super large hadron collider (upgrade from the present LHC) aren't likely white elephants. Most of ITER objectives are simply scaled-ups of proven techonlogies. The experiments are developed around the world in places like our CCFE.

Alex, the nuclear industries spend lots of money to convince us all that we are going to be doomed by CO2, our politicians are also very good at making this point to all of us so they can justify airport departure tax and fuel escalator and other carbon taxes in a few years. The graph of number...

alex, there is a lot of pessimistic view about humans destroying his own habitat, while ignoring that human cleverness will always come through, otherwise we wouldn't be here. Nobody would want to dispute that global warming is man-made but how near are we to the tipping point? I don't believe...

Alex, I just googled a wiki on ic engine which quotes: Most steel engines have a thermodynamic limit of 37%. Even when aided with turbochargers and stock efficiency aids, most engines retain an average efficiency of about 18%-20%.[11][12] Rocket engine efficiencies are better still, up to 70%...

Alex, if you transform chemical energy (as in hydrocarbons) into mechanical energy (for use in transport) by the internal combustion route, you will incur higher (thermally) cost. The maximum yield for thermal to mechanical is by the Carnot theoreme: 1-T(cold ambient)/T(hot steam). This yield...

are we still in thinking rut like flecc said? Flecc and lemmy, aren't you two a tad pessimistic about the prospect of 2 billions Chinese and Indians wanting to have what we are having? My contention is that they are going to get it soon and their net contribution is positive. There will be solar...

how about world population growth? transport will remain a challenge for the foreseable future and questions need to be asked about which fuel we'll use for this because it influences how we vote and where we should invest.

Alex, on average, you only get 20% in diesel out of crude oil, the rest goes to petrol, jet fuel etc. On the other side, generators can burn crude oil. The route to mechanical energy is more efficient via electric motors in principle, even when you take the relative scarcity of copper into...

Perhaps batteries in 20 years will be based on biological ATP/ADP cycle that we can get from virtually any living thing...

Progress made on energy density of batteries: silver oxides in the 60's 0.5MJ/kg, Nicad in the 70's: 0.6MJ/kg, Lithium ion in the 90's: 0.7MJ/kg and this decade: lithium nanowire >2MJ/kg and for reference: petrol 46MJ/kg. Yield of combustion engine: 30% in the 40's 50% this decade. Clearly...

flecc, progress made on batteries are an order of magnitude greater than the improvement gained of ic engines, don't you agree? in a few years, carbon nanotubes will be produced a lot more cheaply and it's not a scarce resource. Even if electricity generation in the near future will still...

The real evil is the internal combustion engine. Most of the chemical enegery is lost as heat. When 60% of the extracted oil is used for transportation, it does make you want to go electric. "To answer the world's material needs, technology has to be not only beautiful but also cheap", Freeman...

Electricity generation does not use refined fuel, but coal or gas. The additional carbon cost to refine gasoline is quite substantial plus life cycle of all the distribution system. Carbon cost for travelling by car is in the region of 130mg per km, clearly nowhere near as efficient as ebike...

Next generation of batteries may be Lithium air, cheaper and easier to swap, quicker to recharge too.

What you you mean by peak oil? the time when production level has peaked? or the time when demand outstrips supply so much that it's just too stupid to keep burning fossil fuel to heat our homes and have hot running water? If it's the former, we may still not reach peak oil (or generally fossil...

It can only be solar energy. Earth receives something like 8,000 times more energy from the sun than all of us get from fossil fuel.

So why Warren Buffet bought into a Chinese e-car manufacturer? link. This is the $22,000 dual fuel F3DM: The Chinese can make not just cheap e-cars but good e-cars too!

This is a typical Chinese solution: No road tax, £250 a year insurance. Price: under $5000

The Twizy costs 6,900 Euros. 15kW 20hp electric motor, with a top speed of 47mph 420kg range 60 miles. I am after a lighter version Twizy with a bank of Kalkhoff batteries...